Minnesota Christian Isackson skates through a group of Alaska Anchorage defenders in the first period as Minnesota plays Alaska Anchorage at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis, Minn., on Friday, January 11, 2013.
(Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

On the other hand, maybe Nick Bjugstad found the range just when the Gophers needed him to.

Bjugstad scored the tying goal on a power play at 16:49 of the third period and teammate Ben Marshall followed suit with a power-play goal 2:20 later as the No. 1-ranked Gophers somehow snuck out of Mariucci Arena with a 4-3 victory over Alaska Anchorage in front of 9,625 on Friday night, Jan. 11.

Anchorage led 1-0 and 3-2 before Tyler Currier handed Minnesota the throttle by taking a major penalty and a game misconduct for checking from behind with 4:08 remaining.

“I don’t think it’s a ‘five,’ ” Shyiak said. “I just think the way the game’s going, they’re calling ‘fives’ and ’10s’ too easily. I’ll take the two-minute penalty, but I don’t think it warranted a five.”

Bjugstad called it “a nice penalty” for a team that dominated the second period but started the game in spectator mode as Anchorage launched the game’s first seven shots on goal and took a 1-0 lead.

Trailing 3-2 and with the man advantage, the Gophers found Bjugstad open in the left circle, and he threaded in his second goal of the game and team-high 12th of the season. It gave the 6-foot-6 junior four goals in his past three games.

“When he’s playing good,” Marshall said, “we’re all playing good.”

Bjugstad, who had four shots on goal but made enough mistakes to finish the game minus-1, made no mistake when he teed up the puck twice.

His first goal, coming 7:27 into the second period, gave the Gophers a 2-1 lead, and it looked like that would be enough to beat Anchorage. The Seawolves (3-12-4, 1-11-3 WCHA) had other ideas, tying the score in the second period and regaining the lead in the third, even though they managed just eight shots on goal through the final 40 minutes.

Shyiak, whose team has lost seven in a row and won only once since Oct. 20, was disheartened.

“That game was winnable,” he said.

Gophers coach Don Lucia pointed out that Anchorage battled just as hard as it did when tying the Gophers 2-2 in their most-recent meeting Nov. 10 in Alaska.

“You gotta find a way to win some nights,” Lucia said, “and tonight we did.”

Minnesota (15-3-3, 7-3-3) was coming off victories over highly ranked Boston College and Notre Dame, wins that lifted the Gophers to No. 1 in the national polls.

Bjugstad’s first goal was a rocket off a pass from Christian Isackson, and his second came off a pass from Nate Schmidt.

Bjugstad said the coaches have been offering him a little guidance.

“They said when I’m physical I’m producing a lot more,” he said, “so I’m trying to be a lot more physical. Go in the corners and good things happen from there.”

Lucia said he hopes to see more.

“It was nice for him to get a couple more tonight, Nick-type goals,” Lucia said. “I know when he’s on, we’re better.”

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